DC ranks 15th in tech job growth projections for 2018

D.C. ranks 15th in the nation for tech hiring, but a strong 2018 still lies ahead, according to a pair of recently released reports highlighting hiring and projected regional growth.

In all, 21 percent of chief information officers around the U.S. plan to add full-time technology professionals to their staffs in 2018, according to a recent national survey by IT hiring firm Robert Half.

San Diego, Atlanta and New York top the list, and the skills in greatest demand are mobile development, database management and wireless network management.

“Tech hiring has been consistent in D.C. and 2018 looks to be more of the same,” said Shafin Moledina, metro market manager for Robert Half Technology in D.C. “Local CIOs and CISOs are looking at big-picture projects — focusing on innovation and growth. At the same time, they are aware of, and concerned with, the challenges brought on by cyber attacks that can threaten valuable company information.”

(Photo via Robert Half Technology)

It’s projected that global spending on cybersecurity alone will reach $1 trillion over the next five years. But the D.C. Capital Region, which is home to a third of the nation’s digital workforce, has only seen a three percent increase, or 8,000 new tech jobs, over the last five years versus a 12 percent national growth rate, according to a recent 62-page Greater Washington Partnership report.

“Despite these strengths, our region is losing share to other regions in digital tech employment,” the report states. “To put that in context, if our region had grown digital tech jobs at merely the U.S. average, the Capital Region would have added an additional 29,000 jobs over the last five years.”

Greater Washington Partnership, which was launched about a year ago by a group of high-powered CEOs from D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, projects that the global cybersecurity market will grow from $135 billion in 2017 to $202 billion by 2022. But there are currently 35,000 unfilled tech jobs in the Capital Region, and 20,000 of those jobs need to be filled by digital tech workers.

“And moving forward, without action, this potential constraint on our region will only grow,” the GWP report said. “The Capital Region’s unique attributes as the cross-roads of research and development, policy, business, media and national security, anchored by the U.S. federal government, position us to lead the nation’s digital transformation and provide compelling reasons for the most talented and ambitious to be part of our desirable communities.